


i tell myself that i'll be strong

by i_was_human



Category: Lost in Translation (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Guns, M/M, Mercy Killing, Monsters, No beta we die like mne, Post-Apocalypse, Sad, Short One Shot, Suicide, Survival, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26472055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_was_human/pseuds/i_was_human
Summary: "Min-""Save it."Minsoo steps forwards, pushing locks of sweaty crimson hair out of Jaewon's face, and he jerks back as his partner (boyfriend) lunges at him, unnaturally sharp teeth bared."You should shoot him," Dongho murmurs, and Minsoo knows, if he looks, he'll see pity in his eyes. "It would be a mercy."Minsoo doesn't reply.
Relationships: Ahn Jaewon | Wyld/Lee Minsoo, Kang Dongho | D.Min/Kim Daehyun
Kudos: 9





	i tell myself that i'll be strong

It's always dark in the city.

They don't know what caused it.

All anyone knows is that one day a massive dome descended over the city, and as soon as the darkness hit, so did the corrupted.

Ninety-five percent of the population turned into the writhing beasts of darkness, and as the days crawled on, more of them crawled out of ever-appearing violet cracks. The lucky ones who weren't turned into the corrupted caught the taint - a disease that slowly eats away at the body, turning it into another one of the corrupted.

They say that once the mind goes, you're really gone.

Or, well. They said.

Very few people are alive to say things, these days.

* * *

A hooded figure sprints through the streets, avoiding the deformed shadows that crawl out of the glowing violet cracks. He leaps to the right, barely avoiding a spray of darkness, and his head whips around, one dark eye landing on the approaching hoard.

"Fuck."

He yanks his gun off his shoulder and fires off a round, causing the group to hesitate just long enough for him to grab the fire escape and haul himself up. The corrupted howl below - shapeless masses of writhing darkness and sickly purple light - and he readjusts his mask as he crouches on the roof, gaze pinned on the distant apartment. 

Go time.

The corrupted howl once more - a tortured, writhing sort of wail - and he leaps over the gap between the two buildings, a small stick slipping from his pocket and landing in the hoard.

Broken shrieks fill the air as the grenade goes off, but in all honesty, he doesn't care.

He checks his mask as he slips in the window, yanking it shut and bolting it behind him.

Can't be too careful with the corrupted.

"Dongho?"

"Dae," he breathes, relieved as ever to see his partner. "You made it back."

"You left," Daehyun snaps, and Dongho can see his hands shaking - knows the way the darkness creeps through his veins and slowly robs them of function.

It's how he lost his eye and ear, after all.

"You promised you wouldn't leave."

"Sorry."

Daehyun steps forwards, pressing a hand to his left cheek, and Dongho flinches as his thumb brushes over the raised veins - sick, corrupted, a sign of the taint.

"...you should've taken me with you. Even if I can't shoot, I can still fight."

"Dae..."

"I'm worried," Daehyun murmurs, tracing the darkened veins with his thumb. "I'm really, really worried, hyung..."

"It's just an eye and an ear," Dongho lamely replies, and Daehyun's shaking thumb dips down to his chin, tracing where the veins disappear under his jacket. "I'm fine, Dae."

"...the head is closer to the brain."

Oh.

Oh, that's what this is.

"Hey," Dongho murmurs, reaching out to grip Daehyun's shoulders. "I won't turn into him, okay?"

"I can never tell," Daehyun whispers.

He can't meet Dongho's eyes.

"It's so... so slow, hyung. You know it is. I don't- I don't want to look in your eyes and see you don't recognize me."

"If that ever happens, I'll off myself."

"No!" Daehyun protests, and Dongho reaches up to cup his cheeks, leather coarse against Daehyun's soft skin. 

"Dae. You trust me."

"...yeah."

"It's the best way."

Daehyun pauses for a moment, gaze pinned on Dongho's two-colored eyes - one natural brown, the other a sickly, twisted sort of white - and he yanks the eldest into his arms, pressing his nose into his neck.

"Hey," Dongho grins, reaching up to cup Daehyun's head (and Daehyun loves his smile - even if it's not that common these days). "I'm not going anywhere any time soon. You don't need to worry."

"I worry anyways," Daehyun mumbles, and Dongho's expression grows somber as he stares at the closed door.

"I know, love. I worry too."

* * *

Minsoo hates this.

He hates seeing Jaewon like this, hates seeing the roiling shadows that pour from his partner's mouth, hates the brief periods of lucidity where Jaewon just sobs to _die_.

He could never make that choice.

Doesn't Jaewon know that?

He hates it, hates the fact that by the whim of some cruel god, he's uninfected, but Jaewon's out of his mind with agony. He hates that Jaewon's like this, hates the way he's chained up like a prisoner, hates the way the taint crawls over his skin like a snake, dark and consuming.

"Min."

Dongho leans against the door - there's lip gloss smeared over his cheek; he's already seen Daehyun - and stares at Jaewon, expression impassive.

"You should kill him."

The thing that once was Jaewon doesn't speak in its defense.

"No," Minsoo repeats, like he does each and every day. "We know sunlight can fix this, we just have to wait-"

"Wait for what?"

Dongho's leaning against the wall, bad eye staring at nothing but good eye pinned on Minsoo's face. 

"What are you waiting for, Minsoo?"

" _Something_ ," Minsoo spits, throwing his hands in the air. "Maybe I'm waiting for the chance to off myself. _Who fuckin' knows_."

Dongho's expression adopts something like pity, and Minsoo _hates it_. Hates the look of pity in his eyes, hates his luck, _hates hates hates_ the fact that Jaewon's here, Jaewon's dying, and Minsoo's so _painfully alive_.

"Min-"

"Save it."

Minsoo steps forwards, pushing locks of sweaty crimson hair out of Jaewon's face, and he jerks back as his partner (boyfriend) lunges at him, unnaturally sharp teeth bared.

"You should shoot him," Dongho murmurs, and Minsoo knows, if he looks, he'll see pity in his eyes. "It would be a mercy."

Minsoo doesn't reply.

* * *

"Don't you think this is cute?"

Daehyun holds up a crop top, and Dongho snorts, turning his attention back to the granola bars.

"What, apocalypse chic?"

"It's cute," Daehyun decides, and Dongho rolls his eyes.

"You can't wear that outside."

"Of course I won't wear it outside! I don't wanna get corrupted bits all over it!"

"...you do you, I guess."

"It's _cute_ ," Daehyun pouts, leaning over to drape himself over Dongho's back. "Tell me it's cute, Ho-Ho."

"I'm not going to respond if you call me Ho-Ho."

"Ho-oh? You can be my pokemon!"

"I don't wanna be a bitchass bird, Dae."

"Not even if it meant you could fly away?"

Dongho's gaze flits towards the entryway, eyes widening upon seeing the sheer quantity of corrupted pounding at the doors. He grabs Daehyun's shirt and stuffs it in his bag, gripping his partner's hand and heading for the exit.

 _"I wouldn't leave without you,"_ he doesn't say, but it's said in all the ways that matter nonetheless.

His hand in Daehyun's, the tight grasp between them, the shirt in his bag-

_"I'm not going anywhere without you."_

* * *

"...it's almost been a year, huh?"

Minsoo's hands shake as he grips the pistol, tears stinging his eyes as he raises it.

"It's been- it's been s-so long, Jae..."

He raises it a little more, so it's aiming at Jaewon's stomach.

"S-So long since... since you a-asked me to go out with you..."

A little higher.

"Almost... almost one hundred days since... since I had t-to cuff you."

A little higher.

"T-Ten days since you were lucid."

A little higher.

"One hour since I decided."

A little higher.

"I'm gonna... I'm gonna put you out of your misery, Jae. And then- and then I'll put myself out of mine."

A little higher.

"I'm so sorry," Minsoo gasps, the gun trembling in his gasp. "I'm so- so sorry, Jae-"

Jaewon stares back at him, eyes nothing more than soulless pits of darkness, and Minsoo screws his eyes shut as he pulls the trigger.

"I love you."

There's a moment where nobody moves.

When Minsoo opens his eyes, Jaewon's lying there, the wall a mixture of red and black, and the elder sucks in a ragged inhale, the gun clattering to his feet as he steps back.

Jaewon-

oh, god.

He drops to his knees, hands falling by his side, and his knuckles brush against something cold - metal.

Oh.

It's the gun.

He can hear the window clattering, can hear Daehyun's laugh, so he knows he has to be fast.

He raises the gun to his temple-

* * *

A gunshot rings through the air, and Daehyun stops short.

"What... what was that?"

Dongho swears, and Daehyun only has enough time to wonder _what the fuck?_ before the elder's yanking him into his arms, gripping him tight as the earth starts to rumble.

Fuck.

"What's happening?" Daehyun cries, and Dongho's gaze flits to the window, watching as the dome crumbles.

Sun doesn't flood in, though.

Oh, no.

Instead, Dongho can only watch, helpless, as the darkness crawls across the sky, more and more succumbing to the endless corruption.

"...we lost."

**Author's Note:**

> well this was. dark.
> 
> hope it wasn't bad at least
> 
> fic title from ellie goulding's lights
> 
> [twit](https://twitter.com/i_was_human_) | [lit fic discord!](https://discord.gg/CNunB74)


End file.
